Middlefocus

It has happened to me several times along my career and I wonder if it has happened to you. "It" is a feeling that you just don't seem to be part of the interaction, closely followed by a sense that you might as well not be there. For some people "It" happens at meetings when the good idea you have just suggested does not get heard and then, when it resurfaces later, someone else gets the credit.  It happens when you get the impression your top executives and managers don't know who you are and could care less!  You feel invisible and it hurts. The good news is that you are not invisible and there are things that you can do straight away to make your presence felt. More about that shortly.  And those hurt feelings?  These suggest to me that you probably are a competent and reliable worker and are a bit annoyed that these qualities are not being affirmed in your workplace by people you like, want to get on with and maybe even want to impress. The...

Do you use Google+ ?  I've had it for a while now and didn't really get into it until a few days ago. When it first appeared you had to be given an invite to join up and so I wasn't one of those early adopters. However, I am rapidly becoming a fan. This morning, last night and yesterday I managed to set up a profile and my middlefocus page. I have linked Blogger to Plus and if it works then this post should automatically appear on my stream and webpage. Seriously. They have made the technology transparent and all that was needed was a bit of patience. What really impresses me though are the vast numbers of internauts out there who blog and post with show-hows.  I just wanted this post to go to them and say thank you for sharing,.  I'll be followng you and adding you to circles.

Reading across some blogs recently it is noticeable that the issue of how often to post is exercising the minds of writers. Some have decided to reduce the number of weekly posts to three and supplementing them with micro blogs on Twitter. The advantages of this are that the blog still retains prominence while readers get a little more space. The big advantage though is that the writer can concentrate on delivering a better quality post. Less is more. It strikes me that while some are reducing to three well-crafted posts a week, I'll be upping the pace to go someway to meeting them. The new wireless keyboard and mouse combo is working well, Blogsy still delivers the magic on the iPad and the thoughts keep flowing. So I am aiming for two a week on this blog and a weekly post on each of my other two. The trick will not only be in increasing frequency but improving quality. Hold me to it, won't you? Posted with Blogsy

The driver side wing mirror on my car has a vertical split designed to widen the field of rear view vision and minimise blind spots. It's not 100% foolproof and sometimes other cars travelling alongside can remain hidden. Ever had that experience? Get it once or twice and we quickly learn to make other checks before an important manoeuvre such as a change of direction; it can be dangerous to rely on a single viewpoint. Workplaces these days often call for decisive actions from middle leaders navigating busy roads ahead. Although speed is of the essence it is still wise to take the time to check and signal our intentions to others likely to be affected by our actions. We don't have the advantage of a split lens to compensate for our blind spots but we should be aware of those we have. Checking blind spots might mean that we enlist the support of others to critique our latest good idea, pointing out plusses and minuses in our direction of travel. Checking and checking wit...

My bookshelves are squeezed tight with all sorts of books. Of the non-fiction variety, apart from text books, the majority relate to personal and organisational improvement. Books bristling with brilliant ideas, sometimes opposed to one another. For example one advocates extensive to-do lists another says forget them. The trick is to try out the ideas for oneself and apply them to one's current situation. I love books that make me think; for me the best "improvement" books are those which stimulate that thinking and leave me to get on with it. Mark Twain once observed that the person who doesn't read good books has no advantage over the person who cannot read them. I know people have preferred ways of taking in information but it often surprises me that for many people their experience of the Classics is based on film or television. In the world of effectiveness literature, a variation on Twain's point might be that the person who doesn't apply the ...

A recent report into managing teams made a case for using social networking to keep in touch. That got me thinking. Who would engage with whom? How naturally would people behave? Would workplace colleagues really see themselves as friends? Let's give this some thought. Bring to mind someone in your organisation or office with whom you have a good working relationship..Got someone in mind? Think of the last time you were with that person. Recall any exchanges you had. Stop reading and take a minute or two away from this to think about that. I'll be here when you get back. Hold that thought. You may have heard of the presupposition that states the belief that we are never not communicating. It holds that even if we don't verbalise what's going on in our heads, our physiology somehow conveys that to others. Now think of that last interaction as a status update on a social media site. Would you click "Like" or simply scroll on by? Whether you hit like or not,...

For several months now I have been using an iPad app, Blogsy, to write and publish posts for each of my three blogs on Blogger. In fact it is so straightforward to use that the app has become my start and end place for posts. That's because it holds the profile details for my various accounts and I can choose the one I want to post to from a single platform. I also like being able to work offline in draft mode and flick to publish when ready. Inserting pictures from the iPad's camera roll is straightforward and has meant that several pictures have been the stimulus for the post. The other evening I hit a snag. I had taken a picture that I wanted to comment and when I launched the app nothing happened. Should I delete it and reinstall? It isn't an expensive purchase and I decided that's what I would do if I couldn't get it going. It didn't come to that though. What did happen was a fast and friendly exchange with the developer that left me wanting to shar...

My old computer has been shows signs of age for a while but rather than replace it I thought it would be a good idea to tweak its capabilities. I uninstalled no longer used and unwanted programs, removed several from the start menu and the system tray and sure enough, it operated much more quickly. The insides of computers are uncharted terrain as far as I'm concerned but I figured why not upgrade some of the hardware? If something goes wrong, I reasoned, then I'll get a new computer. If it works then I'll have learned something new. The RAM was the place to start, and doubling the memory capacity the selected project. A helpful computer magazine provided details of a website that could check the computer memory remotely and would also suggest components that would be compatible with the machine. Neat, service with a sale in mind. This was duly undertaken and a quick look at the instructions revealed that I had to be sure to work in a static-free environment, removing pl...